Fishermen have struggled for year to increase survival rates of their catch. Whether it be to transport live bait to one's fishing destination, bringing home the catch, returning the fish to the same or different water source, or participating in today's popular fishing tournaments, the desire and necessity to keep fish alive has always been important. Clearly, in the last 30 years, there has been much advancement in live or bait wells. With onboard pump/recirculating/aeration systems, the mortality rates of fish have declined. However, the effects on fish being subjected to extreme live or bait well conditions effects of hypothermia, and hyperthermia. Often the conditions in a live well are much warmer than the temperature of the environment, that a fish was caught in. This warmer condition causes stresses to the fish from experiencing the effects of hyperthermia. In this state, fish, which are cold blooded, expend more energy and use more oxygen from the live well water. Some fisherman, to get the effects of warmer well conditions, often add ice to the live well to reduce temperatures, but if too much ice is added fish can then experience the effects of hypothermia. In addition, fish are then experiencing a rapidly changing environment, which leads to increase stress upon the fish.
It is beneficial to keep fish alive in conditions as close as possible to that of the environment they were caught in to survive best in live well conditions. This is the function of the boat live well vent unit disclosed herein.
A search of patents on the subject of venting a live well brought to light the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 6,038,993: 5,632,220: 5,331,914: 6,729,066B1; 6,354,238 BI; 6,192,820B1; 5,586,406; 5,212,902; 5,191,732; 5,038,515; 4,615,137; 5,231,789; 3,367,061; 2,800,741; 5,249,388; 6,748,695 B2; 5,267,410; 4,845,886
These references teach methods and devices for improving live wells and recirculating of fluid therein; however, the references fail to teach or suggest a ventilation vent device for solving the ventilation/temperature control problem in a live well on a boat.